Faith leaders asked to buy into Transform Rockford

ROCKFORD - Transform Rockford promoters encouraged about 100 leaders of faith groups Friday to get members of their congregations to sign up to work on committees to help turn the city around.

And the pastors at the YMCA Log Lodge were asked to volunteer to be among the 100 to 200 people who will be tapped to be "opinion leaders" in the campaign.

Faith groups in Winnebago and Boone counties represent more than 175,000 people who regularly attend services, according to the Association of Religion Data Archives. That's about half the area's population.

The Rev. Denver Bitner, a retired Lutheran pastor, said the "number and breadth" of faiths at the meeting was "impressive."

The Rev. Kenneth Board of Pilgrim Baptist Church, a Transform Rockford steering committee member, told the pastors that joblessness, violence and the lack of quality education are "ideas that keep surfacing, and initiatives will be born out of that."

Transform Rockford is a months-old group of community members led by Tom Gendron, chairman of airplane parts maker Woodward Inc., that aims to turn Rockford into a top city by 2025. Forbes ranked the city No. 3 last year on its most-miserable-in-America list.

The group has hosted several large gatherings and small-group meetings with community members since November.

Shafeeq Rafeequllah, chairman of public relations for the Muslim Association of Greater Rockford, asked how Transform Rockford might "move more efficiently."

After the group "gets things aligned around the whole strategy, we will move fast," Gendron said.

Mike Schablaske, executive director of Transform Rockford, expects strategies to be formulated in spring. The group is still in the "visioning" stage.